Wednesday, May. 07, 2008

Council to approve CDBG recommendations

By Miranda Wycoff

The Journal Staff

The Lee’s Summit City Council is expected to approve the project grant requests for the 2008 Community Block Grant Program.

According to city information, $309,700 has been allocated to the city of Lee’s Summit. The CDBG is a federal grant program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development intended to help those with low to moderate income or to address slums or blight in Lee’s Summit, according to city information.

This is Lee’s Summit’s 14th year in participating in the Federal Entitlement CDBG program and more than $4.5 million in grant funding has been invested into the city.

During the month of February, CDBG applications were accepted for projects around the city.

According to city information, 11 projects were considered, which totaled nearly $500,000 worth of requests. In March, a public hearing was held to allow the public to comment on the proposed projects. Heping Zhan, manager of long-range planning for the city of Lee’s Summit, said the city can allocate that grant money to non-profit and governmental agencies in the community for programs to help those with low to moderate incomes. He said individuals could not directly apply for the CDBG money. But groups like Lee’s Summit Social Services and Hope House could have applied for the grant to get the money to either spend on programs that go straight to the individuals or to help pay utilities and operational costs in the facilities.

Local governmental agencies also are eligible to apply for CDBG funding, Zhan said. He said the Codes Administration Department at the city has applied to help fund a program called Minor Home Repair that helps low income individuals fix their homes up to city standards. According to city information, nine projects are recommended for approval. Those include operating expenses for Lee’s Summit Social Services, which would benefit approximately 3,200 people; the Hope House Early Childhood Center advocate’s salary and benefits, which would benefit approximately 185 children; supplies for One Good Meal; and a case manager for at-risk-children for ReDiscover. In addition $32,000 is recommended to be allocated to Hope House to repair the parking lot. Hope House originally requested just $6,000 to repair 900 square feet of the parking lot. But city staff assessed the parking lot and found the entire parking lot to be in disrepair and the replacement of the parking lot would be more economical than patching up portions, according to city information. Codes Administration’s Minor Home Repair Program is recommended to receive $150,000. ReDiscover is recommended to receive an additional $16,000 to rennovate four nurses offices and storage units for medical supplies. The Lee’s Summit Human Relations Commission could receive $65,000 for the First-Time Home Buyer Program. Upon Council approval, the requests will be taken to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for final approval.